the One being guided only by the Law of Nature depraved, the Other by the Revelation of the perfect Will of God. Sure I am, that Chriftian Perfecutions were utterly unknown, till in the degenerate and diffolute Ages of the Church. Indeed Babylon the Mother of Harlots, was at laft to be drunken with the Blood of the Saints, and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jefus, and even that to be wonder'd at (faith the Spirit) with great Admiration, (Revel. XVII. 6.)

Thofe ftrange Things have been fulfilled in thefe latter Times. The horrible Ways of converting the poor Indians, by the Bigots of the Church of Rome, would draw Tears, and make Hearts to bleed, at the Relation of them. The Accounts are incredibly great, that the Romanists charge upon their own People in their firft Expeditions to that new World. (9) Men hunted down like Beasts,

and

(9) This Relation is given by a Spanish Bishop fettled in thofe Parts. When the Spaniards firft Landed in the Ifles, there were above Five Hundred Souls; they cut the Throats of a great part of thefe, and carried away the reft by Force, to make them work in the Mines of Hifpaniola. As for the Continent, 'tis certain, and what I my felf know to be true, that the Spaniards have ruined Ten Kingdoms there bigger than all Spain, by the Commiffion of all forts of Barbarity and unheard of Cruelties. They have driven away or kill'd all the Inhabitants, fo that all thefe Kingdoms are defolate to this day. We dare affert, without fear of incurring the Reproach of exaggerating, That in the Space of thefe Fourty Years, in which the Spaniards exercised their intolerable Tyranny in this new World, they unjustly put to Death above Twelve Millions of People, counting Men, Women and Children. And it may be affirm'd without Injury to Truth, upon a juft Calculation, That during this Space of Time, above Fifty Millons have died in thefe Countries. They valued them lefs, and treated them worfe than Beafts. They ripp'd up Women with Child, that Root and Branch may be deftroy'd together. They laid Wagers one

and devoured by the Dogs: Women and Children maimed, and hang'd, and burnt, in one and the fame Way of Execution. Whole Iflands depopulated with the most various kinds of Death. Cities and Countries laid defolate with Fire and Sword. Such Ravage and Outrage committed by the Invaders, as if they had refolv'd to extirpate Mankind from that Part of the Face of the Earth. And in both the Indies, they ftill keep up that Office of Hell, their Holy Inquifition; (r) that Engine of Ignorance and Hypocrify to thofe that efcape it, and of Torture and Destruction to those that fall by it: That Reproach of Religion and humane Nature, which fome of the Popish Countries are afham'd to admit of, and which will one Day deferve a Confederacy of all Chriftian Powers, to root out and abolish it for ever.

We hope there is little Reafon to complain of any Cruelty or Force in our Proteftant Plantations. The Severity of fome Masters to their Slaves, and

the

with another who should cleave a Man down with his Sword moft dexteroully at one Blow. Or who fhould run a Man through after the moft artificial manner. They tore away Children out of their Mothers Arms, and dafh'd out their Brains against the Rocks. Others they threw into the Ri vers; diverting themselves with this brutifh Sport, &c. They fet up Gibbets, and hang'd up Thirteen of thofe poor Creatures in Honour to Jefus Chrift and his Twelve Apoftles, as they blafphemously exprefs'd themselves; kindling a great Fire under thofe Gibbets, to burn thofe they had hang'd upon them, &c.

(r) See The Hiftory of the Inquifition, as it is exercis'd at Goa, written in French by the ingenious Monfieur Dellon, who la boured Five Years under thofe Severities, with an Account of his Deliverance. Tranflated into English, [by the Reverend Mr. Henry Wharton,] London 1688. 4to. compar'd with 4 Difcovery and plain Declaration of fundry fubtil Practices of the Holy Inquifition of Spain. Set forth in Latin by Reginald Gonfalves Montanus, and lately tranflated, Lond. 4to. 1589.

the Inhumanity faid to be fhewn to fome of the Indians in War, are Matters of Grievance, that we hope will be redrefs'd, as Chriftianity, by our -Care, fhall be farther planted and improv'd among them. Our Miffionaries are charged to preach Peace and Love; (s) to exhort Masters to be gentle to their Slaves; and all our People to be kind and courteous to the Natives, as knowing that Charity and Compaffion will most effectually promote the Gospel of Chrift.

« V. The Fifth and Laft Way I mentioned of hindering the Gofpel among the Pagans, is our fetting an ill Example of Loofenefs and Pro"phanenefs, fo as to make our Preaching vain. : - The great Care of the Apostles was, for their Christian Converts to win over others by their good Converfation, or at leaft, to give the Adverfary no occafion to blafpheme. For nothing inftructs the Ignorant like Life and Manners; in them there is a Life and Spirit that moves and actuates the Minds of People, by working on their very outward Senfes. But alas, by the wrong Turn of humane Nature, ill Example is more taking and more prevalent than good, as meeting with corrupt Affections more inclinable to it. Hence our Brethren abroad, who live in the midst of Heathens, or on the Borders of them, should take infinite Care to give no Offence to thofe Gentiles, nor to take fuch

.per

() Proper Inftructions were given to the Commanders. in Sir John Narborough's Voyage to the South-Sca. Above Fall, for the Honour of our Prince and Nation, you are to take Care that your Men do not by any rude Behaviour, or Injuries to the Natives, create an Averfion in them to the English Nation; but that on the other fide, they endeavour to gain their Love by kind and civil Ufage towards them. Sir John Narborough's Voyage, 8vo. p. 11.

pernicious Ways, as by Reason of them, to have the Way of Truth evil fpoken of, (2 Pet. II. 2.) Alas, all Preaching will be there empty and vain, if our Chriftians fo called, fhall live there like Infidels, and even become worfe than Infidels.

It would be melancholy to recite the Complaints of fome of the more fober Writers in the Communion of the Church of Rome, who faw the Wickedness and Prophanenefs of the Spaniards, in their first Poffeffion of America. (t) How they brought over new Vices, that were unknown to the native Simplicity of thofe poor Souls; and how they improv'd and raised in them every Folly and Sin, to which they were before abandon'd; (u) and baptizing them as their Profelytes, in the groffeft

(b) The Spaniards (fays their Bishop of Chiapa) have even debauched the Indians by the ill Example they have fet them, and taught them a great many Vices they never heard of before they converted with the Spaniards. Such as Oaths and Blafphemies against the Name of Chrift, the Practice of Extortion, Lying, and many other Sins that feem'd oppo fire to the iweet and peaceable Temper of thefe People, So that to leave thefe poor Indians under their Govern ment, is vifibly to expofe them to utter Deftruction, and to make them miferable both in Soul and Body. Relat. of the Span Cruelties, 8vo. p. 123.

(u). There was a Son of one of the Caciques, who, when he was a Boy, was in great Towardlinefs and Hope, and promifed very confiderable Things; but having the Misfor tune to have his Education among the Spaniards that came to Convert the Countrey, he grew intolerably 100fe and des bauch'd, and was as good as any of them all at any kind of Villany. Some of his Friends that perceived this Change in him, and were forry for it, ask'd him one time how he came to grow fo bad. Oh (fays he) I have been a Chriftian, and convers'd among the Spaniards. I have learnt to Swear by the Name of God, by the Crofs, and by the Words of the Holy Golpel. I have learnt to Game, and Lye, and Diffemtle; I have put on a Sword by my Side too, to fight with in my Quarrels; and now I want nothing to be compleatly

like

graffeft Ignorance and Impenitence: (w) They made them, if poffible, twofold more the Children of Hell than themselves.

Nor can we fupprefs the Complaints of this kind, against too many of our own People in thofe Parts; who are faid likewife to have taught the poor Indians fome Immoralities and Vices, not before fo much as named among them: Drunkenness, an Abomination they never committed, till we fupplied them with the Matter of it: Curfing and vain Swearing, their happy Language never reach'd unto,

like them in my Converfation, but a Concubine, &c. See Dr. Harris's Collect. of Voyages, Fol. Vol. I. p. 798. Nor were the Priests better than the People: Metellus Sequanus, one of their own Writers, did affirm, That the King of Spain was once counfelled, that he fhould fuffer no more Priefts to go into America, because of their unbridled and diffolute Life. See Dr. John White's Way to the True Church, Fol. p. 189.

(w) Pet. Martyr gave this Account to the Pope himself, upon his own Experience: That Egidius Gonfalus, one of the Spanish Goyernours in the West-Indies, ufed to fend this Meffage to the Indian Kings, That they fhould become Chriftians, and be fubject to the great King of Spain; which if they refufed, they must expect Violence and Destruction; upon which moft of them would defire Peace and Baptifm. They conftrained another King to receive holy Baptifm with all his Houfhold, and fomewhat more than Five Thoufand Men befides. VI. Decad. 3 Chap. p. 237. In the Accounts of Brafile we are told, That many of the Indians bordering on the Portugueze are made Chriftians by them after their manner; that is, not inftructed in the Principles of the Chriftian Faith, but fprinkled with the Water of Baptifm. And even J. Acofta the Jefuit complained of his FellowPriefts, That they taught the Indians to no purpose, but twice or thrice a Week repeated to them the Creed and a few Prayers in the Spanish Tongue, whereof they underfood not one Syllable; and fometimes pretended to a fort of Form of Catechifm in the Indian Language, without explaining it, or examining the Party what he learnt. So ás their Teaching (fays he is but a Jeft and a Shadow, like the Singing of a Song to get Money.